Kelly’s was a major publisher of County Directories from the 1940s to the 1930s. In the 1920s they began publishing more localised, more comprehensive directories with street by street listings of towns and significant sections on local villages. A major source of income was advertising revenue which means there are a great many local advertisements – even on the covers!
This rather tatty copy of the 1929 Directory for Newbury was made available for scanning because of its state of disrepair. The books were published in paperback and were not designed to last (they wanted you to buy next year’s edition too) and flattening the pages for scanning tends to disrupt the binding. As this copy was already falling apart it was felt that it would be better preserved and more available digitally.
The scan is in colour and reasonably high resolution – meaning a large file to download (52.3MB) – you can download it or read it online below.